Track Review: No Hot Ashes – Eight Till Late

With Stockport now placed firmly on the Northern map thanks to the likes of Blossoms indie residence, there are a clamour of new acts breaking out of the city. Amongst them are No Hot Ashes, known for their heavy indie-funk instrumental fronted by the raspy perpetuating lyrics of frontman Isaac Taylor. After years of heightened band practices creating the formal formation of No Hot Ashesin 2014, the quartet have seen leaps of success with their not-stopping-now attitude and hedonistic aspirations to rupture the indie scene wide open with their unique sound – a sold out upcoming gig at Manchester Academy on 16th December reflecting the bands buzz in Manchester at least.

The likes of university degrees and general adolescent chores have meant that we’ve only had a single per year from NHA , though thoroughly appreciated, including the voluminous ‘Easy Peeler’ of 2015 and joyous ‘Bellyaches’ released earlier this year. After recently signing to the unanimously refreshing label Modern Sky, ahead of the new year, we now have news of a debut EP from the band titled ‘Skint Kids Disco’. This title alone coordinates with Not Hot Ashes’ theme for songs with thick fleshy lyrics about drunken soirees and a defiance towards our outwardly Tory regime, padded out and flaunted with toe-tapping funk acting as a backing symphony.

As a promising temptation, they’ve now released one track from the EP titled ‘Eight Till Late’ featuring some expertly paired artwork from Florence Burns. The track itself gives a nod to how far the band have come and subsequently how much the band have aged since their early days. Notably, Isaac’s voice has lost the youthful twang that we heard before. That said, no essence is lost as a tenacious, resilient and still incredibly unique sound filmy resonates. Understandably juvenility is somewhat lost but in it’s place are strong, plucky verses (and a perhaps more indie sound) that feels as though the group have eased into their style, shaking off the shackles of discomfort in ones’ skin that comes with being a teenager.

The title of the track lends a thought to those student nights plastering promises of cheap shots blasting out pop tracks with that feature slogan “open eight until late”, No Hot Ashes depict images of said nights that society dictate are ‘the place to be’ to naïve freshers whilst pointing a finger at our education system and the everyday tasks that we are conditionally taught (like attending said nights) throughout each stage of life. This lead track from the upcoming EP fits quite happily amongst NHA’s already brilliant list of tuneful, gyrating songs that are thrown around the room of any set they present and only promises more impressive feats to come in 2018. I for one am excited.